The Last Four Things Read Online Free PDF

prepared four thousand officers and I will be ready to move against Gant and Parsi. If I am successful we will be invited into Chartres to save the Pope.’
    â€˜And how will you do that?’
    â€˜That’s not something you need to worry about.’
    â€˜But I do worry.’
    â€˜Then worry away.’
    â€˜What’s samite?’
    â€˜Silk. Heavy white silk.’
    It was not that Cale believed Bosco about Avalon, though Bosco was clearly sincere in his certainty of the existence of the place, but he was dubious at the picture of the pleasures that awaited him there.
    â€˜The last time I saw anyone wearing heavy white silk it was some archbishop giving a high mass in praise of God. Four hours was bad enough. In case you hadn’t noticed I’m not the praising type.’
    â€˜Why would you be? In Avalon you will be cared for by seventy-two creatures who are not exactly angels.’
    â€˜Meaning?’
    â€˜They are feminine spirits. Lesser than the rebel angels they made common cause with because they were resentful, as always, about their place in heaven. But seventy-two of them realized before God’s final victory that they would lose even what they already had, and so, weeping tears, they persuaded God to show them mercy – against the advice of the Holy Mother, who saw them for the conniving slags they were. But a forgiving God sent them to Avalon in recognition of that repentance and as punishment for having wavered in their faith. They are waiting for you and to serve you in any way you desire.’
    â€˜Like the nuns in the convent.’
    â€˜That will be a matter for you – and so I assume not at all like the nuns in the convent.’
    â€˜And how do you know this?’
    â€˜It was revealed to me in the desert.’

2
    According to the Janes the heart of a child can take forty-nine blows before it’s damaged for ever and what’s done can never be undone. Consider, then, the heart of Thomas Cale, sold for sixpence, fed on beatings, steeled to murder and then betrayed by the only living creature to show him love (a particularly hard one, that). Self-pity, while it should be accorded due respect, is the greatest of all acids to the human soul. Feeling sorry for yourself is a universal solvent of salvation. Imagine what poison was poured into Cale’s breast that afternoon and night on Tiger Mountain. Consider the damage done and the power offered to make it right. It is not against reason, said the Englishman, to prefer the destruction of the world to a scratch on your finger – how much easier to understand the same price for the gash in your soul.

3
    When Vague Henri, IdrisPukke and Kleist had decided on their careful pursuit of Bosco and his prize they had expected him to head straight for the safety of the Sanctuary, so the long detour taken by Bosco made them wary and suspicious. IdrisPukke only realized where they were going a few hours before Tiger Mountain appeared on the horizon. He was surprised that the news seemed to amaze the two boys.
    â€˜This is the Holiest site in the Good Book,’ said Vague Henri.
    â€˜I didn’t think you believed in all that any more,’ replied IdrisPukke.
    â€˜Who said we do?’ For the last few days Kleist had been even touchier than usual.
    â€˜It’s not that,’ said Vague Henri, ‘but we’ve heard about this place all our lives. God spoke to Prester John on that mountain. Jephthah sacrificed his only daughter to the Lord there.’
    â€˜What?’
    The two patiently explained the story, so often repeated to them it no longer seemed a real event with real people – a none-too-sharp knife and a twelve-year-old girl willingly bent over a curved rock.
    â€˜Good grief,’ said IdrisPukke when they’d finished.
    â€˜And it was where Satan tempted the Hanged Redeemer with power over the whole world. I got a hefty thrashing for pointing out that Satan